Bob Mann: 2009 St Louis Marathon

Sun Apr 19, 2009

Marathon #10 for me took place on April 19, 2009. This one was in St Louis, and it gave me another opportunity to meet up with some folks from Kickrunners, my online running club. This time I met with Joe, Kate and Maria.

This marathon was 11 weeks after my last one in New Orleans. In that time, I hadn't looked at a training schedule at all. My training during the 11 weeks was done simply by memory and by feel. I'm sure it wasn't the most efficient way to train for a marathon, but I figured that I knew enough to get myself by, and I was willing to put in enough effort to succeed.

Given my level of training and my current marathon philosophy of "quantity over quality", I was predicting for myself a time of 3:50. This would be about 3 minutes slower than my PR, set in Birmingham a little over a year ago.

Joe and I managed to arrive into St Louis at about the same time, and Kate (who had driven into town) picked us up. Our first order of business was to hit the race expo and pick up our stuff. There was also a minor celebrity sighting, with Jared from Subway in the house. Whooppee.

Afterwards, we went to check into our hotel, which was a really nice place (the Renaissance St Louis Grand) in a good location. I booked it for a very cheap price, thanks to Priceline.com. I am a big fan of Priceline.

At dinnertime, we finally met up with Maria, who is originally from the St Louis area. We had dinner with her and four of her six siblings, as well as her parents. We had a nice meal in a nice restaurant, and were well carbo-loaded.

After a good night's sleep, we awoke Sunday morning to a steady rain. We were prepared for this, as the forecast all week long called for rain on Sunday. The temperature was around 50, which was comfortable. The rain wasn't terribly pleasant, but at least it wasn't too hot or too cold.

Joe and I were running the Full Marathon, and decided to start out running together, perhaps to run the entire length together, as we did in New Orleans. The rest of the gang was running the Half Marathon.

The marathon started in front of City Hall, and ran east towards the St Louis Arch and the Mississippi River. The arch could barely be seen at the start thru the clouds and rain. Soon, the course turned south and we ran past the new Busch Stadium and then towards and around the Budweiser brewery. The aroma of beer was quite noticeable at this point.

The course wound back towards the start, then continued west past Union Station. After about Mile 9, the Half Marathoners turned around and headed back for their finish. We Full Marathoners continued west into Forest Park, then past Washington University.

In front of the university, we passed the halfway point of the race. I had been very consistent up to this point. My fastest mile so far was 8:32, and my slowest was 8:56. My time at the half was 1:54:46. A little off PR pace, but right on schedule for a 3:50.

About this time, Joe was starting to feel a little sluggish. He decided to slow down temporarily. I was still feeling fine, so I continued on at the same pace. Up to this point, we had been ahead of the 3:50 pace group. But they caught up to us here at the halfway point, and I fell in line with them.

I ran right next to the 3:50 group for about 3 miles, even though I wasn't consciously doing that. They just happened to be going at the same pace I wanted to go. Around Mile 16, I pulled slightly ahead of them, reaching a point perhaps 50 feet in front of them. I could still hear the pace leader when he shouted encouragement to his group.

The rain had been fairly light for most of the race. Just a mist or a drizzle, mostly. But the rain picked up about the time I reached Mile 20. It was now raining pretty hard, but I had been outside long enough to be thoroughly soaked already. The rain wasn't bothering me too much.

My pace stayed fairly consistent. Around Mile 22, the pace group caught back up with me, but I still felt strong and didn't fear being left in the dust by them. Again, I hung with the group for a while, only pulling away slightly in the last dash for the finish line. I ended up finishing in 3:50:04, remarkably close to my prediction. I finished ahead of the pace group; however, I had started ahead of them in the start corral, so it's possible that their chip time was less than mine, despite finishing behind me.

Unlike most marathons, my pace wasn't suffering at the end. I maintained a pace between 8:35 and 8:56 for every mile in the second half. Those numbers almost mirrored the numbers I recorded in the first half. And by my calculations, my time for running the second half was 1:55:20, which is only 34 second longer than it took me to do the first half. So while that's not a negative split, it's as close as I've ever come. And I am thrilled with the overall consistency.

I have no idea why I was able to maintain a constant pace so much better than I ever had before. Have I improved as a runner since New Orleans? Or did I just go slow enough in the first half to ensure I retained some energy in the second half? I'm sure it's some combination thereof. I will definitely try to maintain this consistency in the future.

Joe finished just a few minutes after me. He slowed his pace for a couple of miles, but then gained his second wind and picked the pace back up. By the time we finished, the rest of our gang had gotten sick of waiting for us in the rain, so they headed off, and we decided to meet up with them later.

My impressions of the St Louis Marathon? I found it to be a very enjoyable race, on a very nice course. The crowd was extremely supportive, especially considering that the spectators were standing outside in a steady rain. The weather certianly wasn't ideal, but the organizers of the race can't be blamed for that. The course was much hillier than I anticipated -- I hadn't seen an elevation profile before the race. It might have been the second-most difficult course I have run, after Birmingham. That makes me even happier about my performance.

My only complaint is about the post-race tents. While food and beer were plentiful, getting to them was difficult. The tents were set up in a field that was flooded with water and mud. Walking to the tents was like walking in a swamp. While the race organizers couldn't be blamed for the weather, I do think they could have somehow done a better job of keeping the finish area dry.

However, I found the race to be extremely enjoyable overall, and I give the St Louis Marathon an enthusiastic thumbs up.

The remainder of the weekend was enjoyable as well. We got back together with our group, and found a couple bars for some food and drink. Late at night, Joe and I found a bowling alley near our hotel. I hadn't bowled in years, and I had injested a few adult beverages at this point. But I somehow bowled a 234 in one game, which I believe is the second-highest score I have ever acheived. (I once bowled a 255 back in high school). That put a nice capper on the weekend.

As always, it was great to meet up with some of my running buddies, and I hope to see everybody again in the near future.

I will continue my quest for 50 states in just 7 weeks, as I will go to Deadwood South Dakota on June 7.

And now the photos. Click any image to enlarge.